How to prevent overheating on my MacBook?

Most intel MacBooks get hot when doing things like gaming, intense web browsing, video/photo editing etc. You cant really prevent your Mac from overheating without having really loud fans. I have a MacBook Pro 2018 15 inch Intel i9 and it heats up a lot when playing games and doing video editing. This is normal and there is no real way you can prevent this

"Hot" is highly subjective as what's hot to you may be just warm to me.

Download and install Fanny widget. Fanny will put numbers to your feelings.

Not necessarily. Do you drink coffee? I do and I like it hot enough to hurt the average person, but I've built up a resistance. Same for my general body. I served aboard the USS Ranger CVA-61 during the Vietnam war. My workspace was in Main Machinery Room 3 (MMR3). The average ambient temperature in the room was 150F; 170F between the two main feed pumps. The boilers were superheat models with 1200 psi and 1000F steam. After a while you can last quite a long time in the room if you keep hydrated.

Feelings need to be precisely quantified to be considered valid data..

Is yours getting "hot" now or are you just worried it will?

Go for it young Jedi.